The Sunday Mail
In recent years, a new breed of young and aggressive herbalists and traditional healers has emerged, representing an intriguing and curious group in the process.
Traditionally, herbalists and traditional healers were often depicted as scruffy, old men and women who often practised under intimidating settings in remote rural settings.
The way the majority of the new breed of traditional healers are conducting their businesses has since changed, with some of them operating in modern set-ups.
Apart from operating in modern surgeries, the new crop is also flamboyant as they have a taste for life’s finer things.
Sekuru Ndunge is a Chipinge-based traditional healer who is famed for both his healing prowess and insatiable taste for designer suits.
Harare-based Sekuru Chisanyu and Sekuru Banda are among the traditional healers that are known for their tastes for flashy cars and luxurious lifestyles.
It will, however, be grossly unfair if one is to focus primarily on the traditional healers’ lifestyles at the expense of highlighting the healers’ great ambition to modernise African traditional medicine.
The new breed has left no stone unturned as they step up efforts to make traditional healing attractive to all cross sections of society.
The ancient practice of African traditional medicine is slowly being aligned with modern scientific standards.
According to the World Health Organisation, up to 80 percent of the African population use traditional medicine to meet their health care needs.
In the past, traditional healers’ rarely communicated with the outside world and had the trademark of not revealing the source of their healing powers.
This has since changed with the herbalists and traditional healers stepping up efforts to modernise traditional African medicine.
African traditional medicine is a holistic medical system for diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases and has been an integral part of African cultures since time immemorial.
Sekuru Banda, one of the country’s most popular traditional healers believes that the people’s perceptions towards African traditional medicine has contributed to the slow uptake of herbal remedies by people living with albinism.
“It has been known throughout history that herbs can help alleviate the plight of people living with albinism.
The problem is that in the past, most people had a negative perception towards African traditional medicine.
That perception, is, however, changing,” Sekuru Banda said.
The traditional healer has since produced a soap and a lotion which he says helps alleviate the medical problems faced by people living with albinism.
“This is part of our efforts to modernise traditional medicine and make it attractive to people from diverse religious and social backgrounds.
Making soaps and lotions whose ingredients are herbs is not something new.
It has, for a long time, been done elsewhere in the world,” added Sekuru Banda.
Sekuru Friday Chisanyu, president of the Zimbabwe National Practitioners Association emphasised the need for traditional healers to go the modern way.
“We are currently buying empty capsule shells and then put our traditional medicine.
We have resorted to this packaging for a number of reasons, chief among them convenience.
We will soon manufacture soaps and lotions for various ailments and skin conditions,” Sekuru Chisanyu said.
According to the herbalists, plans are underway for manufacturing tablets and the use of injections in administering traditional medicine.
Mr Eric Johnson, a visiting Belgian herbal enthusiast, said African countries are miles behind Europe and Asia when it comes to fully embracing herbs.
“We have thousands of herbal pharmacies in Belgium.
Save for the few Zimbabwean traditional healers who are making efforts to modernise traditional healing and, therefore, making it appeal to many, the rest of the healers have taken a back seat,” Mr Johnson said.
